History
In the summer of 1933, the Agricultural Adjustment Administration attempted to boost the wholesale price of agricultural produce through an artificial scarcity initiative, whereby crops were ploughed up or left to rot, and six million pigs were killed and discarded. The public outcry over this waste of resources led to the establishment of the Federal Surplus Relief Corporation in October 1933, which aimed to divert commodities such as apples, beans, canned beef and cotton to local relief organizations. In December 1933, the Corporation distributed 3,000,000 tons of coal to the unemployed of Wisconsin, and in September 1934 shipped 692,228,274 pounds of foodstuffs to the unemployed in thirty US states.
On November 18, 1935, it changed its name to the Federal Surplus Commodities Corporation, and placed on its board of directors the Secretary of Agriculture, Henry A. Wallace, the head of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, and the Governor of the Farm Credit Administration.
The Federal Surplus Commodities Corporation was continued as an agency under Secretary of Agriculture by acts of June 28, 1937 (50 Stat. 323) and February 16, 1938 (52 Stat. 38). The agency was consolidated with Division of Marketing and Marketing Agreements into Surplus Marketing Administration by Reorg. Plan No. III of 1940, then merged into Agricultural Marketing Administration by Executive Order 9069 of February 23, 1942.
After WWII, the Federal purchase and distribution of food services continued. In the 1960s, counties began to cease distributing the surpluses direct to low income individuals, instead providing an early form of food stamp. Since 1990, the main program responsible for the distribution of surpluses has been the Emergency Food Assistance and Soup Kitchen-Food Bank Program . In the 1980s, the program was called the Temporary Emergency Food Assistance Program. It is now often referred to as the Emergency Food Assistance Program and is administrated by the USDA. As of 2012, surpluses are still distributed, though to food banks and other emergency food agencies, not directly to individuals.
Read more about this topic: Federal Surplus Relief Corporation
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